Good News #225: God’s Way of Leading Me to Repentance is Not by Condemnation or Fear, But by Revealing Jesus – His Love and Mighty Works in My Life!
When we want people to regret their mistakes and change their ways, normal human behavioural tendency is to give a tirade of shame and guilt and a litany of the negative effects of their behaviour. This is in all of us because the human nature is bent on the negative.
And our natural tendency is to impose our human nature on God as if He is made in our image and not the other way around.
Yet Jesus, who is the express image of the invisible God, demonstrates to us that God does not think the way we do.
The Lord God did say in Isaiah 55:8:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways”
In the gospels, Jesus demonstrated how God leads people to repentance. He performed many miracles of healings, cleansing of lepers, deliverance from demons, raising the dead, multiplication of bread and fishes, etc…
Were any of those who received these healings and miracles holy and perfect?
Not at all… no one is holy and perfect… only Jesus is.
In fact, He moved among tax collectors, prostitutes, etc… people shunned by society…
Noone is really blameless… all of us are sinners… guilty of sin… in need of repentance…
Yet here is The Son of God, Jesus, the very express image of God Himself extending grace and kindness to all who came to Him… doing mighty works for fallen humanity… to draw them to repentance.
He did mighty works in cities and villages to draw them to repentance…
and individually, He extended grace… no condemnation… just like the way He did to the woman caught in the very act of adultery…
The gospel is this — Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
As He never came condemning sinners and shamed and guilt-tripped them to repentance in the gospels, so will He not do so today. His ways are higher than our fallen ways…
And His way is to point people to the goodness of God so that the goodness of God leads them to repentance.
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨